Tennis player Maria Sharapova has been suspended for two years after violating an anti-doping rule, an Independent Tribunal under the International Tennis Foundation announced on Wednesday.
The period of ineligibility began on January 26. According to the ITF, the 29-year-old provided a urine sample after her quarter-final match at the 2016 Australian Open in Melbourne, Australia. The sample was found to contain meldonium, a metabolic modulator prohibited under the 2016 Tennis Anti-Doping Program.
Sharapova was charged with the violation on March 2. She admitted committing the violation and asked for a hearing before the Independent Tribunal to determine the consequences of her actions.
The hearing took place on March 18 and March 19. The Tribunal received evidence and heard legal arguments, and then issued the decision that she would “serve a period of ineligibility of two years,” disqualifying her results from the 2016 Australian Open.
The Russian professional tennis player took to Facebook Wednesday to tell her fans that she cannot accept the “harsh” punishment and will appeal the suspension.
“While the tribunal concluded correctly that I did not intentionally violate the anti-doping rules, I cannot accept an unfairly harsh two-year suspension,” she wrote. “The tribunal, whose members were selected by the ITF, agreed that I did not do anything intentionally wrong, yet they seek to keep me from playing tennis for two years. I will immediately appeal the suspension portion of this ruling to CAS, the Court of Arbitration for Sport.”
She added, “I intend to stand for what I believe is right and that’s why I will fight to be back on the tennis court as soon as possible.”
In March, Sharapova admitted to testing positive for the banned substance at the Australian Open in January, saying she had been taking the medicine mildronate, also known as meldonium, for 10 years for “health reasons.”
Meldonium was added to the banned substance list for 2016. Sharapova claimed she was unaware because she did not read an email about the ban from the World Anti-Doping Agency.
“I made a huge mistake,” she said at the time. “I let my fans down, I let the sport down, which I’ve been playing since the age of 4, that I love so deeply. I know that with this there are consequences. I don’t want to end my career this way. I really hope I will be given another chance to play this game.”